Cameo-Parkway Records
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Cameo and its sister label Parkway were major Philadelphia-based record labels from 1956 through 1967.
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Formation
Cameo Records was founded in December 1956 in Philadelphia by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann. The name was revived from a 1920s record label, Cameo Records. Dave Appell joined the label early as A&R director. Parkway, a subsidiary label, was formed in 1958.
The glory years
The first hit for Cameo was "Butterfly" by Charlie Gracie, which rocketed to #1 nationally in early 1957 and established Cameo as a hit label. Cameo continued to have hits by groups like the R&B group the Rays, who had a #3 hit with "Silhouettes" later that year. In 1958, the big hits were by John Zacherle with his top 10 novelty hit "Dinner with Drac", and the Applejacks' rocking instrumental "Mexican Hat Rock", which cracked the top 20.
In 1959, teen idol Bobby Rydell scored his first hit with "We Got Love" on Cameo. From 1960-1963, Bobby Rydell was the label's second largest hit maker after Chubby Checker. He had hits like "Wild One" (his biggest), "Volare" and "Swinging School", "Forget Him" and others.
Chubby Checker had a minor novelty hit in the summer of 1959 called "The Class", which featured Checker doing comic imitations of singers Fats Domino, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Cozy Cole and the Chipmunks. In the summer of 1960, allegedly at the behest of Dick Clark, who knew a hit when he heard one, Checker's cover of a Hank Ballard tune called "The Twist" rode to immortality. Although only rising to #16 on the R & B chart for Ballard in 1958, Chubby Checker's version went to #1 in 1960, and, when it caught on with parents, went to #1 again in early 1962. Checker had several hits, including "Pony Time" (his second #1), "Let's Twist Again", "The Fly", "Slow Twistin'" (with Dee Dee Sharp), "Limbo Rock", "Popeye", "Birdland" and others.
Around 1961, Cameo-Parkway began developing some new stars. First, the vocal group the Dovells, which featured Len Barry as the lead singer, scored hits in late 1961 with the #2 smash "Bristol Stomp" and followed with "Bristol Twistin' Annie," "The New Continental," "Hully Gully Baby" and other dance-related songs through 1962 and 1963. "You Can't Sit Down," a vocal version of the Phil Upchurch instrumental hit, was #35 in Cash Box magazine's year end survey for 1963. The R&B quartet the Orlons had a big hit with "The Wah-Watusi", which hit #2 in the summer of 1962. They had a few more top 20 hits, including "South Street" and "Don't Hang Up."
Dee Dee Sharp had been a studio backing singer at Cameo-Parkway for some time before she got her chance to make a solo record. The 15-year-old had done a duet with Chubby Checker on "Slow Twistin'", but her powerhouse vocals were so impressive that she recorded her first solo single, "Mashed Potato Time", on the same day. It jumped to #2 in the spring of 1962. More dance songs followed, including the follow up "Gravy", and another dance song, "Ride!"
In the summer of 1963, the #1 hit "So Much in Love" by the smooth R&B group the Tymes marked the last hit from Cameo-Parkway's peak period.
Decline and shutdown
For the next few years, with the onslaught of the British Invasion, Cameo-Parkway wasn't doing very well. Artists like Jo Ann Campbell, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry, the instrumental group LeRoy & His Rockin' Fellers, and stars like Clint Eastwood and Merv Griffin had little success on the label. Artists who later became big, including The Kinks and Bob Seger, also had unsuccessful records at Cameo-Parkway.
The last major hits for the label were Question Mark and the Mysterians' "96 Tears", which went to #1 in the fall of 1966; and, in 1967, The Ohio Express' "Beg, Borrow and Steal" and Senator Bobby's novelty remake of "Wild Thing".
Cameo-Parkway released 727 45rpm singles and 158 33 1/3rpm albums between 1957 and 1966. Among the types of music released were doo-wop, dance hits, popular/rock, rockabilly, big band, garage rock, and soul.
In mid-1967, Cameo-Parkway briefly merged with MGM Records and released four more albums (Two on Cameo, one on Parkway, and one on Vando). By late 1967, after their financial problems worsened, the Cameo-Parkway label was purchased by Allen Klein, who renamed the label ABKCO Records.
Subsidiary labels
- Wyncote, a budget reissue daughter of Cameo-Parkway Records started in 1964
- Lucky Eleven, label based in Flint, Michigan, featuring Terry Knight and the Pack
- Windy C, owned by Curtis Mayfield, featuring The Five Stairsteps
- Sentar, owned by the families of pop group The New Colony Six, who was the label's only group
- Vando, owned by Van McCoy, featuring Chris Bartley
Other C-P subsidiaries of lesser-known content include: Fairmount, Winchester, Key-Loc, Chariot and Cheltenham
